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Bhaga Vad-Gita THE HISTORICAL GAME-CHANGES IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF DEVOTION AND CASTE AS USED AND MISUSED BY THE BHAGA VAD-GITA BY - ,<" DR. THILAGAVATHI CHANDULAL BA, MBBS (Madras), MRCOG, FRCOG (UK), MDiv. (Can) TOWARDS THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE DEGREE OF MA IN PHILOSOPHY TO THE FACULTY OF HUMANITIES BROCK UNIVERSITY ST. CATHARINES, ONTARIO, CANADA, L2S 2Al © 5 JANUARY 2011 11 THREE EPIGRAPHS ON THE ATHLETE OF THE SPffiIT Majority of us are born, eddy around, die only to glut the grave. Some - begin the quest, 'eddy around, but at the first difficulty, getting frightened, regress to the non-quest inertia. A few set out, but a very small number make it to the mountain top. Mathew Arnold, Rugby Chapel Among thousands of men scarcely one strives for perfection, and even among these who strive and succeed, scarcely one knows Me in truth. The Bhagavad-Gita 7. 3 Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it. Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one. St. Paul, First Letter to the Corinthian Church, 9.24-25 111 Acknowledging my goodly, heritage Father, Savarimuthu's world-class expertise in Theology: Christian, Lutheran and Hindu Mother, Annapooranam, who exemplified Christian bhakti and nlJrtured me in it ~ Aunt, Kamalam, who founded Tamil grammar and literature in me in my pre-teen years Daughter, Rachel, who has always been supportive of my education Grandchildren, Charisa and Chara, who love and admire me All my teachers all my years iv CONTENTS Abstract v Preface VI Tables, Lists, Abbreviations IX Introduction to bhakti X Chronological Table XVI Etymology of bhakti (Sanskrit), Grace (English), Anbu (Tamil), Agape (Greek) XVll Origin and Growth of bhakti xx Agape (love) XXI Chapter 1: Game-Changes in bhakti History: 1 Vedic devotion Upanishadic devotion Upanishads and bhakti The Epics and bhakti The Origin of bhakti . The Tamil bhakti movement Chapter 2: The Use of the Gita: bhakti: 17 List of Grace/bhakti verses in the Gita and exegesis Gita Chapter Eleven: Divine Vision: The climax of bhakti The Idea of bhakti in the Gita The Analytic of bhakti: Bhakti and karma Bhakti andjnana Bhakti prioritized over Jnana and Karma Bhakti and surrender Supreme bhakti . Love between Isvara (God) and the human being God's love and surrender to his bhakta Liberation (Advaitin) and Salvation (Theistic) Conclusion Chapter 3: Ancient and Modern Commentators of the Gita: 78 Sankara Ramanuja Tilak Gandhi Chapter 4: Critiques on Bhakti in the Gita: 110 .Appasamy: Contradictions Stephen: Neill: bhakti in South India Zaehner: Mysticism, the Advaitins Zimmer: the Aryan Hypothesis Chapter 5: Misuse of the Gita: the Caste System 126 Conclusion 139 Bibliography 151 Appendix: My Presentation of the Oral Defence 155 Index 162 v Abstract This thesis considers that the purport of the Bhagavadgita is to prioritize the philosophy of loving devotion to God (bhakti), not the propagation of color-coded-caste (varna system). The distinction between bhakti and caste becomes clear when one sees their effect on human life and on the society. Jnana and karma, two of the other polarities with which the Gita contends, finally support bhakti towards betterment, not deterioration, if done selflessly and with balance. Caste, however, is a totally different tension, which is always detrimental to the well-being of the person and the society. In the Gita, the devotees' mystical or emotional love of God apprehends their , ~ oneness with the Supreme God and with all beings, and transcends the pitiless segregation of the caste system, and opens the path of salvation to all irrespective of race, color, caste, class or gender in life. In spite of much opposition from orthodoxy, the bhakti movement spread allover India, and bhakti itself rose to the level of orthodoxy and has become the faith of millions of people especially of the south, and surprisingly, of even of those of the so called highest caste. And yet, caste still remains as an indelible mark of every Hindu, even after they change their religion. Although caste is less venomous now, it is still openly present in all walks of Indian life and shows up its ugly head at important moments such as marriage, elections for public office, admission to school or employment. True, bhakti is the antidote for. caste; but only real bhakti can remove caste completely, not mere lip-service to it. This thesis claims that bhakti is the deliberate major thrust of the teaching of the Gita while caste seems to be a contradiction of this thrust. vi Preface This paper examines bhakti and varna (caste) system that the Bhagavad-Gita disseminates, as both have caused monumental Game-Changes in the socio-religious settings of the Indian society as a whole from ancient times. As in a game of chess, here in the Gita too, the locus of power changes with every move of each player. The Gita' s technique is a progressive display of changes in the metaphysical and historical playing field of India, in which exclusive jnana and egalitarian bhakti have a power-play for priority, in which bhakti establishes its genuine superiority gradually while repressive varna seems to contradict the validity of the moral philosophy of the Gita. ~ The paper discusses this issue conscious of my own historical approach of search for the truth in the Gita, and sensitive of the approach of the faith of the practicing modern Hindu reader according to their personal realization, religious denomination or dogma. The Gita, as a literary phenomenon, has a meaning and a purpose in its own right. As interpreters of the Gita challenge each other's claims to opposite extremes, l this thesis re- examines the topic of bhakti directly from the text of the Bhagavad-Gita itself as a document of its time, before considering what a later commentator, such as Sankara or Ramanuja, teaches about the Gita or how a later Advaitin or a neutral historian interprets Sankara or Ramanuja. I Arvind Sharma, The Role of the 'Anugita' in the understanding of the Bhagavadgita, in Religious Studies 14, no. 2 (June, 1978): 261-267. The Anugita or "The Recapitulation ofthe Gita" is a part of the Epic Mahabharata. Sharma notes that all the devotional elements of the Gita are missing in the Anugita because of its decidedly "Gnostic" character. As such, he concludes that the Anugita' s importance for the interpretation of the Gita seems questionable as it does not take seriously the differences that are central in the Gita' s teaching. Thus the "Anugita," one of the first interpretations of the Gita available to us, is devoid of all the devotional elements, which are central to the Gita. R. C. Zaehner, Bhagavad-Gita, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1973),7. Zaehner too confirms that the Anugita omits all the teaching in the Gita of Krishna as being "most mysterious"-the revelation of the love of God. Krishna is not the teacher in the didactic chapters (12, 13 and much of 3 and 5) of the Mahabharata. vii While the body of the thesis is essentially historical-critical in nature, that is, strictly philosophical, one claim goes beyond this measure and that is basically my own personal assessment (not at all speculative), namely, that the Gita was redacted ov~r time and that the contradictions in the Gila between bhakti and varna is a consequence of these redactions (my claim). Some references regarding redactions are given in the footnotes 2 This paper has five chapters. Chapter I gives the historical aspect of the Gita, with a table of chronology followed by the etymology of the Sanskrit word "bhakti," and its English, Tamil and Greek equivalents, and discusses the origin of bhakti in the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Mahabharata, and the Tamil bhakti movement. Chapter 2, the main body of the thesis, is structured a) to interpret all the verses in the Gita containing the word "bhakti" or its equivalents, to see if the Gita develops an argument through them for theism and bhakti, b) a critical assessment on Chapter eleven of the Gita, considered to be the climax of the Gita, as it proclaims the 'New Revelation of God,' c) an analysis of the Gita' s four ways to God, karma, jnana, supreme bhakti, and supreme bhakti with surrender d) an examination of the aspects of love between the bhakta and God, and e) a comparison of the goals, liberation and salvation. Chapter 3 investigates two ancient Indian interpreters who revolutionized the concepts of Hinduism: Sankaracharya and Ramanujacharya; and two modern interpreters who interpreted it innovatively: Sri Lokamanya Bal-Gangadhar Tilak and Mahatma Gandhi. 2 Radhakrishnan, Bhagavadgita (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1963) 14 ... the text may have received many alterations in subsequent times. H. Zimmer, Philosophies of India (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1967),380-81). A. J. Appasamy, Bhagavadgita in Gitasamiksha, Ed. E. R. Sreekrishnasarma (Tiruppati: Sri Venkateswara University Press, 1971), 12l. A. L. Basham, Wonder that was India (London: Picador, 2004), p 409-11. D. D. Kosambi, Social and Economic Aspects of the Bhagavadgita , Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 4. No.2 (Aug., 1961), pp. 204-5. viii Chapter 4 examines the critiques of four modern interpreters of the Gita on bhakti in the Gita: two bishops, Appasamy and Neill, and two Professors, Zaehner and Zimmer Chapter 5: This chapter argues that, in the Gita, how the upper-most caste uses the theory of the three gunas (innate attributes) to suppress the three castes below it, and exploit the casteless ethnic tribes and peoples of India, which is very much against the grains of the religion of bhakti, which the Gita itself advocates.
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